(MENAFN- The Peninsula) A higher criminal court yesterday upheld a death sentence against a citizen convicted of the murder of a 24-year-old British school teacher.
The Criminal Court of Appeals confirmed the sentence as Lauren Patterson's mother Alison, who flew here from England to attend the court proceedings, watched on.
The court, however, ruled that it was not within its jurisdiction to consider Alison's plea for a monetary compensation of QR20m ($5.5m), reports Al Sharq. "That jurisdiction lies with the civil court."
A prominent lawyer, Yusuf Al Zaman, told The Peninsula that the main convict can challenge the verdict of the higher criminal court in Qatar's Supreme Court (the Court of Cassation) within 60 days.
He said that if the convict fails to challenge the ruling of the Criminal Court of Appeals the Public Prosecution must do that within the above timeframe.
"This is because the sentence involves death. It is not an ordinary sentence, so the highest court must review the ruling," said Al Zaman.
So, for the next 60 days the verdict of the Criminal Court of Appeals will remain suspended, the lawyer added.
When told that the last death sentence was carried out in Qatar 12 years ago, in March 2003, Al Zaman said he wasn't sure.
Arun Abraham, an Indian, had killed a woman family friend Lija Abraham, also an Indian, late in April of 2001 and was sentenced to death two years later.
Meanwhile, the Criminal Court of Appeals sentenced an accomplice of the convict, also a young Qatari, to three years in jail for helping burn Patterson's body and destroy the evidence.
Patterson, from Kent in England, was murdered in October 2013 after leaving a bar in a star hotel here with a female friend and the two convicts after midnight.
She was friendly with the convicts and it seems they were together in the bar. Patterson's female friend insisted that she stay with her overnight since she was heavily drunk. But the main convict dropped Patterson's female friend at her home and promised her that he will be dropping her (Patterson) also home safely.
But police investigations, according to Al Sharq, revealed that the main convict took her to a rented house of his accomplice, the second convict.
According to investigation he had intercourse with Patterson forcibly and then stabbed her with a knife in the chest.
"The crime took place just because the convict became crazy and wanted to have intercourse with the victim"And, moreover, she was killed unnecessarily," the Public prosecution said in its charges filed in the court.
The convicts wrapped Patterson's body in a carpet which had blood stains, put it in a car and drove to a deserted area and put it on fire using charcoal and wood.
They also put Patterson's mobile phone and handbag with her body to destroy evidence completely.
Some people in the area where the victim's body was burnt said they smelt the stench of burning flesh and saw the two men moving in a car nearby.
Al Sharq said during investigations the duo confessed to the crime and even re-enacted the gory episode which the police, understandably, had video-graphed to produce in the court.
The Prosecution told the court it wanted death penalty for the main convict as the victim was murdered in cold blood and a "knife was used not for self-defence".
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